This application claims benefit of Japanese Patent Application No. 2003-313969 filed on Sep. 5, 2003, the contents of which are incorporated by the reference.
The present invention relates to orientation film rubbing apparatus and method for liquid crystal panels and, more particularly, to orientation film rubbing apparatus for and method of rubbing an orientation film of a liquid crystal display element panel of an IPS (In-Plane-Switching) type as lateral electric field drive system.
Usually, for imparting an orientation film of a liquid crystal display element panel with liquid crystal orientation performance, a rubbing process is carried out with a rubbing process, which is formed by winding a clock with thin fur sewed therein on rotational roll, in such a manner as to cause the rubbing roll to roll on the orientation film of the panel and thus cause the surface of the orientation film to be rubbed by the fur of the rubbing roll.
In the rubbing process for the IPS type liquid crystal display element panel, for making the excentric core irregularities to be described later to be visually unrecognizable, the rubbing roll has to be driven for rotation at a high speed.
However, by increasing the rotational speed of the rubbing roll the number of filaments of fur touching the orientation film per unit time (i.e., rubbing density) is increased, thus giving rise to various problems stemming from the scraping-off of the film and re-attachment of resultant particles to the display surface. Specifically, such a problem arises that the display quality is deteriorated by the size fluctuations of the particles attached to the display surface, contrast irregularities due to the density of the attached particles, gap irregularities due to the clamping of the particles between panels and abnormal orientation due to the particles.